


Eighty Bucks Says Sweetheart

by strangeallure



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gift Exchange, Matchmaking, Pining, Puzzles, Secret Admirer, Valentine's Day, ben solo is a sudoku fiend, donut hearts, rey loves a free meal, scavenger hunt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29387454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangeallure/pseuds/strangeallure
Summary: Ben trudges over with a sigh, but it’s mostly for show. Despite the creepy vibes he’s getting in here, he’s been enjoying their little scavenger hunt. And once they find the next puzzle, Rey will high-five him again or give him a quick hug. Her excitement and those brief touches might be the best part of helping her.Ben likes puzzles. Rey needs help with a bunch of them. Good thing it's a slow day at the office.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 32
Kudos: 88
Collections: To Find Your Kiss: The Reylo Fanfiction Anthology's Valentine's Day Exchange





	Eighty Bucks Says Sweetheart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Amoreusou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amoreusou/gifts).



> This was written as a pinch-hit for Amoreusou. I hope you enjoy what I did with your prompt!
> 
> Thanks, as always, to my beta and sounding board, who also came up with the title.

“Hey Ben,“ a voice calls out from halfway across the room. Ben instinctively clicks on his work email to hide the online Sudoku he’s been playing. “You’re good with puzzles, right?” Memories of being teased for always carrying a puzzle book around in high school surface in his mind. He can’t help that he finds them so relaxing.

“Who’s asking?” He regrets the words as soon as they come out of his mouth, wanting to blame his blunder on how much he likes Rey, her expressive face, her too-loud laugh and her constant ribbing that somehow never turns mean, but the truth is that he bestows his special brand of social ineptitude on all his coworkers alike.

“I’m asking, duh.” She manages to roll her eyes even while she’s smiling, rounding his desk. There’s something in her hands.

“I found this letter in my cubby today, so now I’m following a trail of puzzles, but the first one already has me stumped.”

“I think I saw a horror movie with that premise once,” Ben says dryly. He’s a little proud when she laughs.

“Any excitement is better than this soul-crushing boredom, right?”

Rey has a point. February is the slowest month for their company. Christmas business is over and any backlog from last year has usually been taken care of by late January. For some reason, people don't seems to be interested in custom-built furniture until March. Everyone knows, including their boss, which is why Amilyn goes on her annual cruise in February. And since she’s not present, her employees have even less incentive to find things to do to make them at least look busy. Ben strongly suspects Amilyn knows, but as long as he’s getting paid to answer a few emails a day and play online Sudoku, he’s not going to complain.

“You’re not wrong,” he allows and swivels towards her in his chair. “So show me the puzzle.”

She grins brightly and squeezes his shoulder before taking a big sheet of paper out of her bag. The edges of the paper are decorated with little hearts in pink, purple and red. Ah right, it’s Valentine’s Day. It’s not a holiday Ben puts any stock in, but all the displays and ads make it hard to ignore. Maybe he’ll get some steeply discounted Hershey’s kisses from CVS tomorrow. “Thanks so much, Ben.”

“I haven’t actually done anything yet,” he reminds her, voice coming out grumpier than he’d intended.

“I have complete confidence in your abilities.”

Twenty minutes later, they're sitting around the conference room table and Ben’s confidence in himself is waning. This puzzle is much harder than he’d originally thought. At first glance, it’d looked like a simple grid of nine sudoku squares, but he’d soon noticed repeat numbers in some of the squares, and Rey had spotted small differences in font and color, so now they’re in the process of cutting up a copy they made with the company Xerox machine to try out different ways in which the parts could fit together.

He’d half-expected Rey to leave the puzzles with him once he’d told her he needed more space and time, but she’d followed him to the conference room, kept asking questions and making suggestions. It’s kind of fun.

Eventually, they figure out that the cross sums of each line combine into a simple alphabet cypher and that the different colors and fonts indicate how to position the cut out pieces so they overlap in a way that should reveal the answer.

“Supply Closet Two,” Rey shouts and offers Ben a high-five, which he returns with only a little delay.

“Great,” she says excitedly, “let’s go.”

He shoots her a skeptical look.

“Come on, Ben.” There’s a coaxing lilt to her voice.

She’s so excited and obviously wants him to tag along. And really, what’s the harm in spending a little more time with her? “Only because I want to find out if we did it right.”

\--

Almost an hour and two puzzles later, they’re standing in a spooky basement room Ben didn’t even know existed. The single light bulb hanging from a half-exposed wire above them only adds to the mild sense of dread he's feeling.

“This looks a lot like that horror movie I told you about,” he says. “Are you sure you don’t have any enemies?”

"None who lived to tell the tale," Rey says ominously. “Now don’t be a baby, Ben.” She glances around the mostly-bare room, pointing to one side. “You can have the desk, I’ll take the shelves.” Everything is covered in dust, but the shelves have additional cobwebs, so she’s definitely giving him the better end of the deal.

He trudges over with a sigh, but it’s mostly for show. Despite the creepy vibes he’s getting in here, he’s been enjoying their little scavenger hunt. He diligently searches the desk, going so far as to push it off the wall to check if something’s stuck to the back, although it’s solid wood and very, very heavy. As he grunts with effort, feeling his arm muscles strain against his henley, Ben can’t help peeking over his shoulder to see if Rey is watching. Weight training is another thing that relaxes him, and there’s no reason he can't show off a little, right? Of course she’s too busy methodically checking shelves and boxes, and there’s no envelope taped to the back of the desk either. Ben roughly pushes it back into its former place and wipes his forehead with the back of his hand.

As he turns around, Rey is putting the lid back on one of the boxes stashed on the shelves, and when he comes closer, Ben notices a piece of cobweb in her hair. She doesn’t seem to care, focused on the task at hand.

“Nothing yet,” she informs him, “but I can’t reach all the way up.”

Even though he must have at least eight inches on her, the last shelf is so high that Ben barely manages to get the two remaining boxes down. When they check, there's nothing but ancient order sheets inside.

Ben rolls his eyes, annoyed. He was so sure they’d cracked the latest puzzle. He wants Rey to high-five him again or give him a quick hug. Her excitement and those brief touches might be the best part of helping her with this.

“Don’t worry.” As if she’s heard his thought, Rey pats his arm.

She heaves a dramatic sigh. “If this is the part where the serial killer finally shows up, I’m going to be so annoyed.”

Before he can reply, she says, “Hoist me up,” like that makes sense.

“What?”

“I might have shoved it back when I tried to wriggle the boxes myself,” she explains. “Just lift me up so I can check up there.”

He looks at her doubtfully, but then steps closer to the shelf and goes into a half-crouch. “Come here.”

Folding his arms high around Rey’s thighs, Ben moves to lift her up. Her muscles beneath his hands are lean and solid, the slight softness of her belly pressing against Ben’s cheek where he’s turned his head to the side. His pulse accelerates. It’s an embrace in all but name.

Above him, there’s a sharp inhale, followed by an excited whoop. “Finally I’m taller than you!” Rey sounds delighted. “Move to the right a few steps,” she directs, and Ben can feel her bending over in the way her body shifts in his arms, the side of her breast skimming against his head as she extends her arms. It feels good, so warm and firm and tempting. He pushes the thought away. Rey’s a great person and she asked for his help as a colleague (and maybe, hopefully friend), Ben doesn’t want to be a creep about this. “Got it,” she announces. “You can put me down now.”

He lets her down carefully, allowing himself to breathe in a little when her neck is by his face. He couldn’t really describe the smell, just that it’s clean and nice. That it’s her.

Turning around with a big grin, Rey proudly holds out a small cardboard box with a heart-shaped bow on it.

“That was nice. Do you give piggyback rides, too?”

He huffs a laugh. “Only on special occasions.”

Instead of opening the box right away, Rey starts for the door. “Let’s get out of here.”

\--

The puzzle from the basement leads them to a glittery pink package hidden at Rey’s own workstation, right behind her welding equipment, which she’s impossibly and adorably annoyed by. At least it’s a pretty cool one: a wooden puzzle box with strange carvings and a lot of sliding pieces.

Before they’ve reached the conference room that’s become their home base, Rey pinches the bridge of her nose. “My head hurts from thinking so hard. How about we get lunch and give our brains a break?”

“Good idea,” Ben replies. He could definitely eat.

They get sandwiches and drinks from the deli across the street, and Rey insists on buying both of them glazed jelly donuts for dessert. They’re heart-shaped, of course, since no business can resist the lure of Valentine’s Day, apparently.

Back at the office, Rey’s heading straight for “their” conference room instead of the breakroom and lays out her food, digging in with gusto.

She moans around a big bite. “Whoever had the idea to put fried potatoes on a pastrami sandwich deserves an award.” Ben usually eats more healthfully – his pre-packed salad with skinless chicken breast in the kitchen fridge can attest to that – but he has to admit that this tastes like heaven on rye.

He toasts Rey with his half-eaten sandwich. “To an unsung hero.”

Grining, she mimics his gesture. “I never knew thinking could sap this much of your energy. No wonder Armie from accounting is so skinny.”

Ben nods his assent. Armie is thin as a rake but eats like a horse. “Who set this up for you, by the way?” Somehow he hasn’t thought to ask before.

Rey snorts and holds a napkin over her nose and mouth to keep from spewing more coleslaw across the table. “I don’t know,” she says, “it’s a _secret admirer_.” The air quotes around the word are audible.

“What?”

“I know it’s a little weird,” she admits, and her tone could be a little defensive, he’s not sure. “But it’s also flattering, someone putting in all that time and effort to create a scavenger hunt especially for me.”

“And making a lot of work for you in the process,” Ben can’t help pointing out, annoyance seeping into his voice.

To his surprise, Rey laughs. “That’s what I was thinking, to be honest.” She’s finished her sandwich and licks some stray Russian sauce and bits of coleslaw off her hands. It’s messy - _she’s_ messy, with crumbs dotting the front of her sweater, her mouth and chin shiny with delicious grease - but Ben, who’s usually a stickler for table manners, can’t really fault her for it, not when he’s seen Rey’s unadulterated joy at eating food this good. “But then I thought, _Fuck it, it’s February, it’s not like I have anything better to do._ ” She leans forward, into his space, and adds, “Besides, the letter promised that they’ll take me out to one of the best restaurants in the city tonight, and I’m not someone to turn down free food.” Pulling a donut from the paper bag between them, Rey takes a healthy bite, red jelly squeezing out.

Ben shakes his head, even as he feels a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth. “After seeing you eat, I don’t think there’s much room left to argue.”

“Great. Now eat your damn heart, Ben, they’re amazing.” Rey shoves the bag at him, and when he takes a bite so big he can feel the jelly run down his chin, she grins and cleans it up with a napkin.

\--

The clue from the wooden puzzle box gets them to a bright red bag stuffed behind a defunct radiator. Inside they find a bunch of metal puzzles.

“I’m afraid I’ve never been very good at those,” Ben tells Rey, a little embarrassed. He’s supposed to be her puzzle expert, and it’s been fun to help her, spend time with her, but now that his expertise has run out, Ben wonders if he should leave her to it.

She looks at him with bright eyes and tugs him back towards the conference room. “My time to shine,” she exclaims. “If I know one thing, it’s metal, and I’ve always loved these things. Haven’t done them in a while though.”

Rey makes quick work of the first one, but the second one seems to be harder. Her tongue pokes out in concentration as she jiggles and slides the metal pieces against each other. Ben likes how engrossed she is, completely focused.

“You’re staring,” she says without looking up, and Ben feels his cheeks warm.

“I’m making no headway with mine,” he admits, “might as well watch a professional at work.”

She huffs a laugh, keeping her eyes on the pieces.

“I like watching you work.” Ben's not sure why he said it out loud, and his face only grows hotter.

Rey looks up at him briefly, and there’s a soft expression curving her mouth. Directing her attention back to the metal, she turns the tangled shapes around to try another tack. “And I like seeing you blush.” Her voice is so quiet he almost doesn’t hear her.

Ben has no idea what to make of that statement, and before he’s come up with a response, the pieces in Rey’s hands clank apart, and she makes a triumphant noise. “Ta-da!”

Giving her a thumbs up, he rattles his still-unsolved puzzle with his other hand.

“Come on.” She gestures for him to come closer. “We’ll try that one together. I can show you a few tricks.”

\--

The final puzzle is an especially weird one. It’s a lot of quotes and rhymes that are obviously meant to be romantic but are really just excruciatingly horrible. There's a note enclosed which reads, “Speak your love and you shall be dined.” The ugly little cupids on every square of paper don’t improve the situation.

“Oh,” Ben stretches out his index finger, remembering something. “I think I know what this is. When you say them out loud, you find words with double meaning or internal rhymes or lines with an extra word that throws off the rhythm.” He nods, getting surer as he speaks. “I saw those in a puzzle book I had as a kid.”

“Is there any kind of puzzle you don’t know?” Rey shakes her head, and it seems both amused and a little impressed. It’s nice to impress her with something he’s mostly been teased about.

“You did just see me fumble with those metal pieces, right?”

“Those don’t count,” she says sternly. “They’re just harder for you because your hands are so big.”

Ben feels weirdly touched that she’s defending his honor as a puzzle expert.

“With all the puzzles,” Rey muses, “it’s strange this secret admirer isn’t trying to woo you.” There’s some truth to her statement, although Ben doubts solving them alone would have been anywhere near as exciting as doing it with her.

“Instead of putting so much time and effort into the puzzles, they should maybe have tried to figure out what you actually like to do.”

“True in theory,” Rey says, “in practice, we’ve been having a lot of fun today. I mean,” she tugs a strand of hair that’s escaped her braid behind her ear, “I’ve had fun.”

“Oh yeah,” Ben is quick to reassure her. “It’s been great spending time with you.” He swallows, then adds, “To puzzle, I mean. And help you.” He tries very hard not to roll his eyes at himself. “I mean, I’ve had fun, too.”

Rey smiles up at him. “So, you want to start reading or should I?”

\--

As they take turns reading, it becomes apparent that there isn’t a single line of those supposedly romantic snippets that doesn’t make them laugh, and eventually, Rey starts acting them out a little, adopting a mock serious, extremely lovelorn tone.

When she holds her hands out and praises his “beautiful eyes, blue as clouds on a summer’s day,” Ben buries his head in his hands.

“They’re all bad,” he whines, “but that doesn’t even make sense.”

“Because clouds are white?”

“Among other things.” He looks at her from behind splayed fingers. “This makes me regret learning how to read. I'm going to call Miss Morgendorffer and ask for my parents' money back."

Rey snorts a laugh like she tends to do. It’s not very elegant, but it’s genuine and lively and so inexplicably charming it makes Ben want to kiss her nose. “Maybe the poet’s lover has cataract?”

“I’m not ruling anything out at this point,” Ben groans.

Nodding in agreement, Rey says, “At the very least, the admirer should have changed it to suit me. Maybe to _beautiful eyes as brown as a steak in a pan_.”

“Of course you'd choose a food metaphor,” he replies fondly.

She winks at him with a cheeky smile. “You know it.”

There’s something about her metaphor that doesn’t sit quite right with Ben. “Your eyes aren’t even brown,” he says with a small frown.

She shrugs. “Close enough.”

He doesn’t give himself time to think before he leans over to look into her eyes. They’re even brighter up close. Mesmerizing.

Slowly shaking his head, he says, “No. Your eyes are brown and green at the same time.” He doesn’t move away, isn’t sure if he could. “And there’s specks of gold in there, too.” His voice comes out a little scratchy. They’re so close their noses are almost touching, but Rey isn’t pulling away, so it has to be okay. “They’re very pretty.” It’s not a conscious decision to lick his lips, but he’s doing it, his eyes darting to her beautiful, rosy mouth. Rey takes a sharp breath.

 _Oh no._ Ben jerks back. He’s made her uncomfortable. The last thing he wanted. Damn it. He told himself not to be a creep about this. Just because they’ve been having fun today doesn’t mean it's okay to just- Idiot.

“So,” he says, trying to salvage the situation by turning back towards the remaining snippets. His belly flops nervously, and he hopes she’ll go for his diversion, that they can just pretend the last minute or two didn’t happen. “Only three more to go.”

For a moment, Rey looks confused, but then her smile returns, and they get back to figuring out the puzzle together just like before.

It’s not like Ben’s still thinking about the soft gleam in her eyes or how pretty her mouth is or how, up close, she still smells a little like Russian sauce. That would be absurd.

\--

Once they’ve endured more bad poetry than anyone ever should, they finally solve the last puzzle and find out that Rey’s mysterious stranger has made reservations under the name Rebus at _Bocca della Verità_ at seven tonight.

Neither of them has ever heard of the place, but Rey searches it on her phone, and it turns out to be a very exclusive and very authentic Italian restaurant; even their website is only available in Italian. To Ben, it sounds like an overpriced hipster magnet.

“According to Yelp, they weren’t lying about it being one of the best restaurants in the city,” Rey says, rolling her lower lip between her teeth.

Ben nods slowly. “After the hours of work you put in, the least they can do is deliver the amazing fine dining experience they promised,” he says and forces a smile.

Rey puts her hand over his for a moment. “The work _we_ put in,” she corrects. “If it weren’t for you, I’d never have figured it out in time.” Her mouth curls. “With how much time we’ve spent on this together, the admirer should really invite you, too.”

“Too bad I don’t seem to be their type.” Ben shrugs. “And you would have figured it out eventually. Would just have taken you a little longer.” Rey scowls at him in a way he knows she just wants him to take the compliment. “But you’re welcome,” he amends.

So this is it, he thinks. This is where they’ll go back to the occasional chat in the breakroom or before a meeting. Maybe they’ll linger a little longer than before, make a reference to their strange puzzle adventure, but Rey is still a metal worker, her station still on the other side of the building, and without an excuse like this to hang out, there's limited overlap between their lives at the office.

“Actually.” The excitement is back in her voice. “I’ll take you out to dinner next week to pay you back.”

“That’s really not necessary,” he says in spite of the hopeful tingle at the back of his neck. “It was fun.”

“I want to,” Rey says with so much feeling that Ben couldn’t deny her, even if he wanted to. “And don’t worry,” her mouth breaks into one of her big grins, “I’ll take you to a total dive. More my speed anyway.”

He laughs. “I’m relieved to hear it.” Dive bars often have dart boards or pool tables, and Ben’s not half bad at either. Maybe they could play a game or two. Maybe he could casually ask her if she wants to do it again sometime. At least it would be less weird than asking her if she wants to solve more puzzles together.

“I mean it,” she insists with a glint in her eye. “Two dollar beers, four dollar burgers. Mystery meat and days-old oil in the deep fryer.”

“Why even go and eat out without the thrill of imminent food poisoning?” he asks, surprising himself when he winks at her.

Her snorted laugh shows that she doesn’t mind.

“Glad we’re on the same page.” She pats his shoulder before she walks away.

\--

With at least an hour to go before his work day is officially over, Ben decides to check his email. There are two low-priority requests by suppliers he answers immediately before opening up a design file that won’t have to be done for another ten days.

He’s using the powerful software to doodle instead of doing any meaningful work as his thoughts drift back to Rey. If it doesn’t work out with her mysterious admirer - and it shouldn’t, they clearly know nothing about her - Ben should ask her out on a date. He _wants_ to ask her out on a date. He just isn’t sure how. Maybe he could do a callback to their puzzle teamwork today, although that might be too nerdy. Or he could find an amazing potato dish and offer to cook it for her. She said she hates cooking and loves potatoes, and Ben’s a decent cook. But maybe that’s too much for a first date, inviting her into his home. Maybe something more ca-

“Hey Ben.” Someone startles him out of his reverie. It’s Rey.

As soon as he’s turned in his chair to face her, she squares her shoulders, her words coming quickly. “I had a lot of fun with you today. More fun than I’ve ever had on a first date. Probably because everyone knows that first dates usually suck. So I think it makes sense for us to go on a real date tonight.”

Ben’s mouth might be hanging open a little. “Rey-“

She holds up a hand before he can continue. “I know what you’re thinking. _It’s Valentine’s Day and we have no reservations, where could we even go?_ “ She simply has to know that that’s the absolutely last thought on his mind right now. “Good thing I used to waitress part-time at a great hole-in-wall before I got this job, and I called Maz. She’s making stew tonight and she’ll hold two seats for us, if you want to come.” She looks at him with her big eyes. “Her stew is really amazing, you have to try it.” Ben is almost one hundred percent sure she knows that the stew is not the draw here.

“No mystery meat burgers?” is the reply his useless brain comes up with.

“I think those are more third date material.” Rey smiles a little, and it seems- hopeful. As if there’s even a chance he’s going to say no.

“I’d like that, a lot. Not just the stew.” Ben inwardly curses himself. “I mean, I don’t care about the stew. I just want to go out with you.”

Her smile turns impossibly bright. “I know this is our place of work, and it’s a little inappropriate, but I’d really like to kiss you now.”

Ben nods eagerly, and Rey’s still laughing as she pulls him up by the arm.

“But what about your secret admirer?”

“The restaurant is on the way to Maz’s Cantina. I’ll go in and leave them a note saying I appreciate the puzzles but that I’m already seeing someone.”

Before Ben can ask any more inane questions, she pulls him into a warm and playful kiss.

\--

Rose and Armitage arrive at _Bocca della Verità_ twenty minutes early, just in case.

When they tell the hostess the name the reservation is under, she discreetly hands them an envelope. Rose can’t help the smug grin forming on her face.

“Excuse us a moment,” she says apologetically, “we’ll be right back,” and turns around, trusting Armie to follow her.

Once outside the restaurant, she opens the envelope, takes out a piece of notepad paper and reads Rey’s message out loud.

“I think you owe me eighty bucks,” she says.

“How do we even know she’s talking about Solo?” Armie protests, but it sounds feeble.

“When I met her in the breakroom yesterday, I asked her if she was dating, and she said no. Today, she’s spent all day with Solo and suddenly she’s seeing someone.” Rose raises a meaningful eyebrow.

Armie looks like he wants to object, but she preempts whatever he wants to say. “Besides, while you were taking that call about payroll, I saw them in the parking lot together, holding hands.”

He seems mildly affronted. “So instead of telling me then, you decided to let me stew for another two hours?”

“Don’t be like that, Armie.” Rose gives him a sweet smile. “It’s Valentine’s Day and we have a perfectly good reservation for one of the best restaurants in town.” She loops her arm around his and gives his biceps a squeeze. “How about we make the most of it?”


End file.
